F R O M   T H E   C R O W E ’ S   N E S T

Find Another Means



In the current 11th-hour groundfish management atmosphere, groups are vying for space to pitch their particular solution to the fisheries “crisis.”

Fishermen have long known the fundamental problem is with the autocratic federal bureaucracy that has been driving the fisheries management bus to failure for 40 years. It’s about saving turf, not fishing. This kind of guaranteed-jobs-for-life, insulated and myopic group is and always has defined government bureaucracy, whether in Soviet-era Moscow, Beijing, or 21st-century Washington, DC.

The NOAA Fisheries’ in your face, “we’ll screw you to the wall if you mess with us” policy they call “public service” bureaucracy, is what our ancestors were up against with the British in 1776. Different issues, different uniforms, same self-serving crony bureaucratic oppression. It doesn’t belong in this country and there is no worse place for it than the fishing industry.

The Conservation Law Foundation’s charge of hypocrisy regarding AG Coakley suing NOAA for failing to meet it’s responsibilities was a desperate bone thrown for tax deductible donations.

It was AG Coakley who stood up to defend the fishermen who were clearly the victims of what can only be described as NOAA enforcement terrorism. Enormous business busting fines, break-ins, squandering collected fines, and shredded evidence is some of what NOAA enforcement was found guilty of.

Now a NOAA end run around a council vote that favored an interim measure quota cut of 40%.

NOAA’s Northeast Regional office called their 78% cut override a day of reckoning. The AG’s office called it revenge and its suit charges the federal government with failure in its responsibilities. The delegation backing this AGO suit includes congressmen and the governor.

Government agencies wrestling for funded turf and cover-ups is familiar enough though nonetheless disturbing. But NOAA enforcement actions were criminal attacks on citizens not in fighting amongst themselves. The day of reckoning? A day of revenge on the victims by the victimizers. Where does this Sopranos script end?

Only one Revolutionary American colonial stood up to say, “Give me liberty or give me death,” but many more of them moved to oust the king’s policies and crony bureaucrats.

While the NOAA bureaucrats are playing career games, the fisheries problems go unresolved. An insulated, self-serving, vindictive bureaucracy that demeans those it is paid to “serve” cannot possibly meet its responsibilities. It’s time to find another means.